Just when you thought the power and influence of the Religious Right was waning, the Bush administration is seeking once again to regulate their views into federal government. According to State Attorney General Jerry Brown the Bush administration is planning regulation that would unravel California's law that requires religious health institutions to provide full birth control services.

At issue is whether or not, health practitioners or rather the company they work for must be forced to provide an abortion procedure or write a birth control prescription, acts they believe compromise their religious beliefs.   Read More »

Cross posted at Calitics

Blackwater may be on shaky ground. Despite official protestations to the contrary, it's starting to look as though Blackwater's course might be shifting. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is starting to ask why the government is using so many private contractors, asking "Why have we come to rely on private contractors to provide combat or combat-related security training for our forces?" and going on to wonder "are we comfortable with this practice, and do we fully understand the implications in terms of quality, responsiveness and sustainability?"

These are questions that a competent government would have been asking in 2001 when Donald Rumsfeld declared that privatizing national security would be a good idea because...I don't know why...his friends would make money? It was Rumsfeld shift away from publicly-guaranteed and provided security that brought about the rise of Blackwater and a litany of other, slightly less infamous private security firms. But in light of the continuing legal proceedings probing Blackwater's Nusoor Square (17 civilians dead for no reason), Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's insistence on eliminating immunity for security contractors in any new Iraq-U.S. security negotiations, and now Gates' expressed concerns, Blackwater executives have been saying they'll shift away from private security because it's causing them too much grief. Blackwater will supposedly "survive with a focus on international training, aviation and construction."   Read More »

Our governor was on This Week this morning and as Arnold has a largely undeserved reputation for being an environmentalist George Stephanopoulos decided to ask him some questions on that topic. The answers were quite revealing, and should give Obama a major opening to attack McCain should he be interested in doing so.   Read More »

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continued to campaign against the center of John McCain's offshore drilling - energy plan during a surprise visit to Florida's Climate Change Summit hosted by the sunshine state's governor, Charlie Crist.   Read More »

Presumed Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain's willingness to undercut California's coastline standards which prevent offshore oil drilling is not only divisive, but undermines his support to take action to reduce global warming. The veteran politician wants it both ways.   Read More »

When you drive along Highway 101 near Santa Barbara, or Highway 1 in Huntington Beach, it's hard to miss the many oil rigs on the ocean's horizon. They are relics of a bygone age - not just the 1960s, when they were constructed, but an age in which California believed that cheap oil would always be plentiful and available. We built an entire infrastructure around that and neglected trains, walkable neighborhoods, and lagged behind the rest of the world in developing solar and wind power.

Now the consequences of that misguided belief in the permanence of cheap oil have become clear. Gas prices are nearing $5, causing economic distress and sending Californians flocking to mass transit. For his part Barack Obama is proposing massive new investments in sustainable energy and rail infrastructure.   Read More »

During his fundraising swing through California, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain found time to make an appearance on "The Ellen Degeneres Show." During the segment, Ellen wittingly goaded McCain into a conversation about same-sex marriage rights and her personal plans to marry her partner this summer.   Read More »

Given that the conservative California Supreme Court finds same-sex marriage bans to be discriminatory, the issue of marriage equality is sure to reverberate nationally, just in time for the November presidential elections. The presidential candidates have given their statements on California's historic legal ruling.   Read More »

During the morning drive today, NPR ran through John McCain's healthcare plan, which isn't really a plan so much as a plot to throw sick people to the wolves. But what struck me most wasn't how ineffectual McCain's plan would be (make private insurance cheaper...somehow), but how dramatically he apparently misunderstands the fundamental nature of the health care crisis in this country. Senator McCain believes:

The problem is not that most Americans lack adequate health insurance...The biggest problem with the American health care system is that it costs too much.

Which of course ignores the millions of people who have health insurance but still can't get adequate health care. And the millions of people who have become uninsurable because of prexisting conditions. Those people aren't John McCain's concern apparently, and why would it be since his goal is protecting insurance companies? What's even more shockingly ignorant though is the parallels he tries to draw with other national programs. McCain flatly rejects the notion of mandated health insurance (a debatable issue, granted) with the argument that he wants everyone to have a college education too, but he's not going to force it on them. Unfortunately for McCain, this country mandates over a decade of education already. You know- the basic level necessary to reasonably function in modern society? Yeah, that one. Which is exactly what a health insurance mandate would be doing. So either McCain doesn't realize that kids are required to go to school in this country (rather unlikely), he doesn't understand what a health insurance mandate is (also unlikely, but less so), or he's just being willfully deceptive and dishonest with the country (I think we have a winner). It's amazing not only that he thinks he can get away with this, but that the people in this country deserve to be treated with this sort of intellectual contempt. I can't wait to beat this guy.

All sorts of interesting developments on the FISA debate over the weekend as we swing into the next phase of the showdown. First, the New York Times blasted leading Senate Democrats in an editorial for even considering an extension of Bush's protections. It also went ahead to say what so many of us know already: the notion that amnesty for telecom companies is anything but an attempt to cover up what this administration has been up to is...well...crazy. The President contends that amnesty is necessary to get cooperation in the future, but it just doesn't pass the smell test. If the law is followed, it's not a problem. And if there's any question about legality, the time to sort it all out isn't well after the fact. That's the whole point of having a FISA court in the first place.

Call Senator Feinstein and ask her to stand with Senator Dodd against immunity   Read More »

Yesterday was a big day on the FISA debate, but only the beginning. We got Senator Feinstein's attention, both jamming all of her voicemail boxes and getting a comprehensive response from her Communications Director. Most encouraging has been the cooperation throughout the netroots and grassroots organizations that want to protect our 4th amendment rights. Courage Campaign was joined by CREDO, DailyKos, Glenn Greenwald, FireDogLake, D-Day at Digby, and countless others to push back on unnecessarily bad legislation. We even got a big boost from John Edwards. But while we've clearly gained momentum, the issue will extend into next week.

Tim Tagaris has a great rundown of what's likely to be coming down next week. A number of votes are likely on Monday, which also happens to be the day of the State of the Union. That means that EVERYbody is gonna be in town and we could really see some fireworks as presidential contenders like Clinton, Obama, and McCain come home and either conspicuously mix it up or conspicuously don't. As one commenter at OpenLeft noted yesterday, most people on the street have no idea what FISA is. Well, with all the attention on the big presidential candidates, that could change.

There are indications that we may ultimately not get either the Judicial or Intelligence versions of the bill through, in which case we're likely to see a 30 day extension courtesy of Harry Reid on Monday. Regardless, we're going to be seeing cloture votes and battles over 50 and 60 vote thresholds all day Monday leading up to Bush almost certainly bringing it up during the State of the Union.

Senator Feinstein will remain a key vote on any FISA legislation. I encourage everyone to read Robert's excellent analysis of everything that's wrong with her particular amendments and keep up the heat and act now to tell Senator Feinstein tto support the Dodd filibuster and protect tha Constitution.

Last night I watched New Hampshire results come in from a party in Encinitas to officially launch the congressional campaign for Nick Leibham in the 50th district. And when he wasn't busy whipping the crowd of several hundred into an anti-Bush frenzy, I have to admit I was glued to the tvs throughout the room. And almost as exciting as the spilling-out-the-door turnout at the party was the spilling-out-the-polling-place turnout for the second straight major election.

Most of all I'm excited to discover that, contrary to the "momentum-is-all" punditry, we've got ourselves not one but two full-on races for the presidency.

Five times so far Americans have cast their votes for President. And five times someone different has won. Obama and Huckabee in Iowa. Romney in Wyoming. Clinton and McCain in New Hampshire. What's next?

That, not surprisingly, is where you come in. Pollsters took a beating in New Hampshire, which means that, quite frankly, nobody knows what's going to happen now. Which makes this an opportune time to make your voice heard. So before you hop to the flip and have Rick Jacobs give you the full rundown, I'll ask:

Who will you vote for?   Read More »